Press conferenceJürgen Klopp's Sparta preview: 'We have to play a really good game'

The Reds hold a commanding 5-1 aggregate lead after the first meeting in Czechia and will be aiming to confirm a place in the quarter-finals when they host Sparta in the return at Anfield.

Klopp’s men are unbeaten in eight games, winning seven, as they push for further success in three competitions after already lifting the Carabao Cup.

Asked at today’s pre-match press conference if a positive of the relentless fixture schedule is the chance to build momentum, the boss said: “Yeah, you can see that like that in the end but it was anyway tough, super-tough because we have game after game.

“I think Arsenal played last night the last game until after the international break, right? That’s a big break. Everton didn’t play this week at all if I’m right. That’s not good as well, I don’t think they like it, that they think three weeks in the middle of the season is fantastic.

“But we have our challenge. The challenge we have now: we play tomorrow and then on Sunday, and then the players obviously play two games for their countries, pretty much 85 per cent of the players do that, which is a tough one as well.

“We just don’t think about it. We just play the games. Momentum is always… maybe in the moment we have it, I don’t actually know if we still have it. We had it at the weekend a little bit, but do we have it still? I don’t know, we have to see that tomorrow night.

“But if we don’t have it, we have to get it as quick as possible and keep it and keep it through the game, and then we will see how we deal with that and how the results will be.

“But good results always help, good performances always help. But even that is a challenge to bring that again on the pitch because if you play bad, the next game you have to play better. If you play good, you want to play as good at least or better. That’s actually the idea and not that you have consistency.

“The boys were quite consistent, I have to say now, in recent weeks. But it’s a long, long run-in in all competitions – a long run-in – and we are not even close to the finishing line, it doesn’t feel like that, I can’t see the finishing line.

“I just see Sparta Prague wants to put things right and we have to play a really good football game because it’s our home game, it’s our stadium, it’s our competition.

“We wanted to make it our competition from the first day of the competition, so we want to go as far as possible and it would be cool if we could say that after the game as well, that we still have the momentum. But in the moment I don’t know.”

Klopp was also quizzed on the outstanding form of Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk – the team’s Standard Chartered Player of the Month in February – and whether being appointed skipper last summer has had an effect.

“If just an armband right here [on the body] would make us the best version of ourselves again, we all should try it! Just wearing something is not a problem, eh? So put it there and let’s see what happens,” he said.

“Yeah, definitely a big step again but just back to his best. When you play the level Virg played for so many years now for us and there’s a dip after an injury, stuff like this and everybody discusses like it’s over – it’s not nice but it’s the world we are living in, so that’s how it is.

“It was never a real problem. Especially if you play on the level the boys play, little problems can lead to a big difference in performance, that’s how it is. You don’t feel 100 per cent, just 80 and you step out and don’t win it and the player turns right instead of left, you read the situation wrong and gone, and the whole world tells you, ‘Yeah, now he’s not the best defender in the world anymore.’

“So dealing with all these things at a pretty young age – because Virg is now not that young anymore but he’s still a young human being, it’s not that he is 60 and saw it all – and super-ambitious and wants to reach a lot of things with this club and all these kind of things.

“And yes, the captaincy helped. He took the role sensationally well – all of them did, the whole leadership group stepped really up. They all made big steps. That was always the plan and the idea and the hope – that it will be like that when you lose the leaders of the last few years. And that worked out really, really well.

“It’s like [what] I hoped for, not that I knew it will happen. But it was exactly what I thought [that] it would be fantastic if it could be like that, and that’s all due to the boys that it worked out really well.”

Joe Gomez, meanwhile, is one appearance away from 40 this season having started last Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester City.

The No.2 has featured in four different positions over the course of the campaign – and when asked about Gomez’s contribution, Klopp hailed it as ‘exceptional’.

“I couldn’t be happier for Joey,” said the manager. “Joey in our most successful years was for us super-important, played an incredible amount of games. 2019-20, stuff like this, probably 2018 as well, I can’t think that long back.

“And then some injuries and stuff happened a little bit and he was in and out of the team. [He was] always important to us, always important, but I think this season is the most consistent he played, especially because of the different positions.

“I think the least games he played on centre-half probably, because we always needed him somewhere else. And he did exceptionally well. And I think it developed his game massively.

“If you would have asked me before the season, ‘What do you think about inverted right or left-back? What do you think about generally the six?’ I don’t know if I would have said, ‘Yeah, of course, come on, Joey can do that.’

“But that’s what opportunity sometimes does to you, that you really grow with the challenges you face. And that’s what Joey definitely did, he is in exceptional shape and long may it continue.”